Wedding Business Solutions

Stop selling to a guaranteed minimum!

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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Stop selling to a guaranteed minimum

Are you selling to a guaranteed minimum? What message are you sending when you lead with starting prices or minimums in your pitch? Could you be underselling your services by focusing on the lowest number your clients have to hit, rather than the unique results you deliver? In this episode, I explore why selling from the bottom up may be holding your business back, and how shifting your approach can help you book clients at higher rates—especially on those in-demand dates. I'll share strategies for repositioning your pricing conversations and making sure you're attracting clients who want the full value you provide, not just a bargain.

Listen to this new 6-minute episode for fresh strategies to stop underselling yourself and start converting more clients at the prices you deserve.

Episode Summary: 
In this episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast, I dive into the pitfalls of selling to a guaranteed minimum dollar amount—a common practice among venues and caterers. I talk about how leading with a minimum or starting price sets client expectations at the lowest level, which can actually hurt your sales and limit your potential. Instead, I suggest that you focus on selling the unique results and experiences you provide, and only bring up the minimum if it becomes necessary later in the conversation. I also share strategies for offering your best packages on the most popular dates and explain why posting only your lowest prices leads to low-budget inquiries. My goal in this episode is to help you elevate your sales conversations and book more profitable events.

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

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View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


Want to see how I can come and speak for your local association... for free? Reach out to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or text or call +1.732.422.6362

I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

Are you selling to a guaranteed minimum dollar amount? Listen to this episode and you might change your mind on that. Hi, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. I consult a lot to wedding venues and to caterers, and I very often hear them selling or even see in writing where there's a guaranteed minimum that somebody has to reach for a certain day. It could be a seasonal thing, could be a day of the week or something like that, or a certain type of an event. And I certainly understand where you're coming from on that. What I don't understand is why you would be presenting that to the client. And there's a point where you certainly have to, if they're not meeting it.

And there are other ways to talk about it. But here's the problem with that. If you've heard me talk about pricing before, you've heard me talk about how not to use a starting price. When you're selling because you're selling from the bottom up, you're selling from the cheapest thing that you have. And that's the only number somebody has heard so far. And that's what they expect to pay, regardless of what they're going to get. It's just human nature. It's psychology.

So when you say to somebody, we have a guaranteed minimum of X dollars on a certain day of the week for, let's just say, for a wedding or a mitzvah or a Kinsey, whatever, at your event, at your venue, the problem with that is that's the number they're shooting for, right? They're immediately looking at that number and saying, okay, I have to make that. And you. You don't want to sell that, right? Like, why would you sell on a Saturday night in October the minimum that you would sell for that day when you could sell somebody who's more than that? So the problem with that is it's. It's the same as a starting price. It's exactly what it is. We have a guaranteed minimum of whatever. Now, there are different ways to talk about it. You could have a minimum guest count, right? Now, the truth is, you really have a minimum dollar amount.

You don't have a minimum guest count. So let's just pick a number. Let's say you have a $20,000 minimum for a Saturday night, right? You don't. You know, it's not really a minimum guest count. It's. It's that. But if you take your cost per person, I'm just going to pick an easy number. Let's just say $100, right? So if you have $100 per person, you have a $20,000 minimum.

You have a 200 person minimum. So you could say 200 person minimum. And if somebody says, I only have 150, you say, well, we do have a minimum of 20,000 for that night and we can get you there different ways with menu choices, bar choices, and so forth. But what you really want to do is you want to be selling them up, right? That's what you want to be doing. You want to be selling them up higher than that. So a starting price and a guaranteed minimum are the same. And I don't think that's the way you should be leading with people. I think you should leading with them wanting the results that you can provide that only you can provide because they're not available at any other price anywhere else.

And then have that discussion with somebody later to say that you have that number. So if you think somebody might not hit it, then you can bring that up and say that, right? So if somebody comes in with 80 people for a Saturday night and they're looking at your packages, and another thing I've spoken about is you don't have to offer all of your packages or all of your offerings on certain nights of the week or certain months of the year. So again, you don't. If you have, I'm just going to say, three packages, you don't have to offer that lowest package on a Saturday night or Saturday in October specifically. I've worked with a lot of people where they had three packages, and they might still have three packages, but on their most popular days of the year, they only offer their top package. Why? Because you can only do one in that room. Or if you're an entertainment company, that DJ can only do one event on that Saturday. The photographer can only do one event.

And even if you have a team of more, each one can only do one. So why not fill your calendar with people paying more when you know you're going to get more inquiries? Because it's one of the most popular days of the year. And don't you hate when you're booked and somebody comes along and would have spent more? Yeah, and I've heard of people kind of getting booted for somebody who's spending more, which is wrong, by the way. If you take that contract, you live up to that contract. Now, you could offer somebody to move and may make an incentive to them. But actually, I had a friend of mine where he was getting married in Mexico. The hotel made the deal and then told them a couple of months before that they weren't going to be able to do it there, they were going to do it at a sister property. They didn't want it at the sister property, they wanted the original property.

Right. So I told them, okay, what are they doing for you? And they weren't doing much. And I said, no, you tell them I have a contract and you're going to do it here or you're going to do something for me over there. Because clearly they were getting booted because somebody came along, wanted to spend more money. So, okay, so going back to this idea of a guaranteed minimum, don't sell to the bottom. No matter what you sell. Invitations, efficient dresses, photo, video entertainment, photo booth, whatever it is that you do, don't sell to the bottom, sell to the results that somebody wants. Ask them, tell them how much it is, ask for the sale.

And if you do have a guaranteed minimum and somebody's not going to reach it, that's when you would tell them, we do have a guaranteed, you know, we do have a minimum that we need for that night. Here's some ways we can get to that. And if somebody isn't going to reach it, doesn't want to move the date or they can't because the date is already booked and you're a different service. Well, maybe they're not a right fit for you for that because you still had that number, it was still there. But don't lead with it, it's just a bad way to sell. Leading from the bottom. Right. It's the same as starting prices.

So many of you have starting prices on your website and you're encouraging low price inquiries because of it and wondering why, but it's actually self inflicted. That's why if you're going to put a price but without putting your full pricing, a price range is better to say this is the range you're going to get up in, end up in. Not just this is the number that you have to hit or higher. Especially when you want people paying double that or sometimes triple that or more. Okay, hope it gives you something to think about. Thanks.

I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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